Into the Wild
by: Jon Krakauer
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Amazon.com Review:
"God, he was a smart kid..." So why did Christopher McCandless trade a bright future--a college education, material comfort, uncommon ability and charm--for death by starvation in an abandoned bus in the woods of Alaska? This is the question that Jon Krakauer's book tries to answer. While it doesn't—cannot—answer the question with certainty, Into the Wild does shed considerable light along the way. Not only about McCandless's "Alaskan odyssey," but also the forces that drive people to drop out of society and test themselves in other ways. Krakauer quotes Wallace Stegner's writing on a young man who similarly disappeared in the Utah desert in the 1930s: "At 18, in a dream, he saw himself ... wandering through the romantic waste places of the world. No man with any of the juices of boyhood in him has forgotten those dreams." Into the Wild shows that McCandless, while extreme, was hardly unique; the author makes the hermit into one of us, something McCandless himself could never pull off. By book's end, McCandless isn't merely a newspaper clipping, but a sympathetic, oddly magnetic personality. Whether he was "a courageous idealist, or a reckless idiot," you won't soon forget Christopher McCandless.
Product Description:
In April 1992 a young man from a well-to-do family hitchhiked to Alaska and walked alone into the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley. His name was Christopher Johnson McCandless. He had given $25,000 in savings to charity, abandoned his car and most of his possessions, burned all the cash in his wallet, and invented a new life for himself. Four months later, his decomposed body was found by a moose hunter....
"God, he was a smart kid..." So why did Christopher McCandless trade a bright future--a college education, material comfort, uncommon ability and charm--for death by starvation in an abandoned bus in the woods of Alaska? This is the question that Jon Krakauer's book tries to answer. While it doesn't—cannot—answer the question with certainty, Into the Wild does shed considerable light along the way. Not only about McCandless's "Alaskan odyssey," but also the forces that drive people to drop out of society and test themselves in other ways. Krakauer quotes Wallace Stegner's writing on a young man who similarly disappeared in the Utah desert in the 1930s: "At 18, in a dream, he saw himself ... wandering through the romantic waste places of the world. No man with any of the juices of boyhood in him has forgotten those dreams." Into the Wild shows that McCandless, while extreme, was hardly unique; the author makes the hermit into one of us, something McCandless himself could never pull off. By book's end, McCandless isn't merely a newspaper clipping, but a sympathetic, oddly magnetic personality. Whether he was "a courageous idealist, or a reckless idiot," you won't soon forget Christopher McCandless.
Product Description:
In April 1992 a young man from a well-to-do family hitchhiked to Alaska and walked alone into the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley. His name was Christopher Johnson McCandless. He had given $25,000 in savings to charity, abandoned his car and most of his possessions, burned all the cash in his wallet, and invented a new life for himself. Four months later, his decomposed body was found by a moose hunter....
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Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - A fine piece of journalism
Chris McCandless's story is one of intrigue. McCandless was a fearless, searching, hopeful young man who took off after college with little money to his name, and who eventually embarked on a wilderness survival adventure that cost him his life. Krakauer did a magnificent job of telling chris's story. It seems as though chris's adventure was researched with great care. The quotes cited from all of Chris's reads give more depth to Chris's character. The only thing that somewhat took away from the ... Read More
Rating: 
- A tragic tale of a young man alone...
I'm late in reading this book, but then I never read things just because they are popular. I've known about this story for a while, but my sister read the book and said it was really good. So I took it home. It's a very easy, very fast read. I was skeptical about it for two reasons...not enamored with the author because of another book he wrote, and also, my husband is a scoutmaster and on search and rescue, and we all figured that a young man who goes into the wilderness without enough preparation ... Read More
Rating: - Krakauer Does it Well
Jon Krakauer's books are well written and researched. In Into the Wild, he has taken acomplex true journey and handled it in a straight forward, thoughtful way. One is drawn into the story and held bysuspense and a need to determine the psychological make-up and motivation of the subject. In the end, we are enriched by practical information and the sense that we too have made a journey of sorts.
Rating: - Tragic and inspirational
I recently reread "Into the Wild," and it's as good the second time as it was the first.Author Jon Krakauer deserves accolades for doing two difficult things. First, he did exhaustive research on an elusive person by literally tracing his path across the U.S. over a period of months. Second, he thoughtfully put together the elements of psychology, family history, natural history, and literature into this unforgettable book. It's one thing to do research; it's another thing entirely to present it efficiently ... Read More
Rating: - So-So
This book wasn't horrible, but it wasn't brilliant either. I read it because i've read Into thin Air by Jon Krakauer and loved that book. Into the Wild was, overall, a good story line and written well, but wasn't really my type of book and failed to keep me interested throughout.
It is about a boy named Chris McCandless who decides to ditch the average american lifestyle and take to the road. He gives away his savings to charity and ventures out to the wild. The book takes you through the places he traveld, ... Read More
- A fine piece of journalismChris McCandless's story is one of intrigue. McCandless was a fearless, searching, hopeful young man who took off after college with little money to his name, and who eventually embarked on a wilderness survival adventure that cost him his life. Krakauer did a magnificent job of telling chris's story. It seems as though chris's adventure was researched with great care. The quotes cited from all of Chris's reads give more depth to Chris's character. The only thing that somewhat took away from the ... Read More
- A tragic tale of a young man alone...I'm late in reading this book, but then I never read things just because they are popular. I've known about this story for a while, but my sister read the book and said it was really good. So I took it home. It's a very easy, very fast read. I was skeptical about it for two reasons...not enamored with the author because of another book he wrote, and also, my husband is a scoutmaster and on search and rescue, and we all figured that a young man who goes into the wilderness without enough preparation ... Read More
- Krakauer Does it WellJon Krakauer's books are well written and researched. In Into the Wild, he has taken acomplex true journey and handled it in a straight forward, thoughtful way. One is drawn into the story and held bysuspense and a need to determine the psychological make-up and motivation of the subject. In the end, we are enriched by practical information and the sense that we too have made a journey of sorts.
- Tragic and inspirationalI recently reread "Into the Wild," and it's as good the second time as it was the first.Author Jon Krakauer deserves accolades for doing two difficult things. First, he did exhaustive research on an elusive person by literally tracing his path across the U.S. over a period of months. Second, he thoughtfully put together the elements of psychology, family history, natural history, and literature into this unforgettable book. It's one thing to do research; it's another thing entirely to present it efficiently ... Read More
- So-SoThis book wasn't horrible, but it wasn't brilliant either. I read it because i've read Into thin Air by Jon Krakauer and loved that book. Into the Wild was, overall, a good story line and written well, but wasn't really my type of book and failed to keep me interested throughout.
It is about a boy named Chris McCandless who decides to ditch the average american lifestyle and take to the road. He gives away his savings to charity and ventures out to the wild. The book takes you through the places he traveld, ... Read More
